'For service providers, just voice or even traditional data revenue alone is not going to be the cure. They have to invest and innovate so that they would not get displaced by other aggressive providers or more importantly by OTT companies.'

Vittal and Oommen will be part of a 26-member GSMA board, which includes 25 operator representatives from the world’s largest operator groups as well as smaller, independent operators with global representation, GSMA said in a statement.

The Narendra Modi-led NDA government is aggressively eyeing India’s 5G launch in tandem with developing countries worldwide, and has already formed a high-level 5G Forum headed by Telecom Secretary Aruna Sundararajan

The president of the youngest telecom operator that has more than 160 million subscribers said that the current times are a great opportunity for bringing in privacy as key parameter in the New Telecom Policy.

Cloud and Artificial Intelligence (AI) are set to become the bedrocks of communications infrastructure, with both having the potential to grow manifold in the coming years, Akash Ambani, director at Reliance Jio Infocomm said.

After PSU banks, the government is likely to infuse capital in two chronically ill telecom PSUs BSNL and MTNL, and the Union Cabinet is likely to take a decision on 4G spectrum allocation to them by the third week of the current month after DoT places the note before it for consideration.

At a high-level meeting at the PMO late Tuesday, it was also decided that the two telcos will frame a Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS) to reduce their employee strength, which will be followed by a reduction in the retirement age to 58.